MICHELLE PFEIFFER, THAT WHITE GOLD
Movie Review – Ant-Man and The Wasp
Review by Paul Preston
What happens after Avengers die? Ant-Man!
After the first significant loss of life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Quicksilver in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron), producer Kevin Feige lightened the mood by next releasing Ant-Man, where Paul Rudd poured on the charm as a thief-turned-good-guy battling to keep human-shrinking technology out of the hands of Hydra. Now that there’s been another significant loss of life (everyone else in Avengers: Infinity War), Feige again turns to Rudd the mood-lightener for more loose and fun adventures with Ant-Man.
We know from Infinity War that Rudd’s Scott Lang couldn’t help in the fight against Thanos because he’s been on house arrest after the events of Captain America: Civil War. He’s getting ample time in with his daughter Cassie and looking to launch a security business with his old ex-com buddies…when adventure calls in the form of a voice from The Quantum Realm. The voice is that of Janet van Dyne, wife of human-shrinking technology creator Hank Pym and mother to Scott’s they’ve-gotta-get-together-right? partner of sorts, Hope van Dyne, now known as The Wasp and equipped with her own shrinking technology, with wings!
For fun diversion from the weighty story arc of The Avengers, there’s a lot going on. Hope and Hank want to use Scott’s connection to The Quantum Realm to rescue Janet, there’s a black market dealer now interested in Pym’s technology, there’s also an estranged former partner of Pym’s, Scott’s frequent run-ins with the FBI, and a supernatural villain known as “The Ghost”. Unfortunately, this keeps much of the plot dialogue murky. Characters are often explaining the story or talking about what they’re doing. It’s not a de-railing script aspect, but over-writing is a plague in Hollywood and this is one of the first times I’ve seen it in a Marvel movie. Characters say things like, “I need that suit!”, when it’s clear that’s what the character wants. Or something to the effect of “That was some truth serum”, when, again, it’s CLEAR that truth serum is making a character act in a way where he’s always telling the truth. Moments like that just make the script muddied and makes it harder to enjoy the best bits.
Where the film wins is in the action sequences. Ant-Man and The Wasp jump from microscopic to full-size and back again with lightning-quick agility, foiling the bad guys and challenging us to keep up. The visual effects are incredible. At one point, Ant-Man has blown up to Giant Man size and he’s using a full-size truck as a sort-of scooter to chase villains down the streets of San Francisco. And you would SWEAR it’s just something they filmed. Every effect, from giant salt shakers, to The Wasp running along the edge of a kitchen knife in mid-air, is 100% BUY-able. The filmmakers and visual effects and stunt teams coordinate to make amazing situations HAPPEN. Pretty damn amazing and again worth pointing out that the MCU continues to impress in that no film of any size is the ignored step-child, there’s big budget looks and big-budget cast in all its films.
I love when quality actors find themselves in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because then you know you might see a whole lot of them! In this film’s case, we get first glimpses of the legendary Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet, teamed with Michael Douglas for (it’s hard to believe) the first time. Also, Walton Goggins plays Burch, the black marketer. He’s great in everything and has a blast being over the top here. There might be a little too much over the top with Judy Greer and Bobby Cannavale’s appearance as Cassie’s mom and her new man.
Marvel’s next film is a new one (no small-balls move) as Feige introduces Captain Marvel, who will no doubt play a big role in sorting out the mess that was Infinity War’s finale. I welcome it all. While DC flounders around, hoping for something that isn’t awful to come out of their extended universe and Star Wars fires more directors than The Cleveland Browns do quarterbacks, Marvel is just sticking rolling out its plan, and having fun doing it. If you’re not on board after their miraculous cinematic achievement thus far, what’s it going to take?
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Release Date: July 6, 2018
Run Time: 118 Minutes
Rated: PG-13
Country: USA
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios
